The Story
Over a decade ago, when sustainable business meant ensuring next quarter's profits, the entrepreneurs of Justmeans were working on ways to reshape business as a force for positive change...
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April 2007 - Early Days
Over a decade ago, when sustainable business meant ensuring next quarte's profits, the entrepreneurs of Justmeans were working on ways to reshape business as a force for positive change.
From the age of 18 when he started StartingBloc, Martin Smith believed that the best chance for improving the world was through companies engaging people in a transparent and authentic way. After five laborious years founding and growing StartingBloc, Martin transitioned the organization over to begin work on Justmeans.
An initial investment from former Google and Citigroup executives got Justmeans going. A basement in a Harlem, New York brownstone was Justmeans initial home.
November 2007 - An Ashoka Fellow Joins Justmeans
An international platform would be crucial to Justmean's strategy so Martin recruited Ashoka Fellow Kevin Long. Spring boarding off a decade in the world of social entrepreneurship, Kevin jumped at the chance to drive change through a Software as a Service (SAAS) business focused at helping companies engage people.
December 2007 - Outsourcing Doesn't Work
In the fall of 2007, Kevin and Martin learned something very important:
"OUTSOURCING DOES NOT WORK"
In December, 2007, Martin moved to India to rebuild the website with a more scalable database structure. The idea was to "rebuild an entire social media platform from scratch" in 90 days...
January 2008 - A New Partnership
Martin settled in Pune, India having met two dedicated software entrepreneurs interested in building their own technology business. Nikhil had formally run a call center and an outsourcing company and Vikrant was a programming ninja at one of the leading outsourcing companies in India.
Taking on significant risk in a culture that does not have the cavalier risk taking mentality of Silicon Valley, Nikhil and Vikrant both began working full time on Justmeans. The initial Pune office housed Nikhil, Vikrant, Martin, and two young and very talented programmers, Onkar and Sagar.
The first office in India was an unfurnished apartment in Kothrud, Pune. Over the next three months, Justmeans was rebuilt with a completely scalable database structure. After three months of incredibly intense programming in Indian heat, all of the new PHP based, scalable Justmeans code was housed local on one machine.
Late in the evening the night before Martin was supposed to return to New York, the local server fell and crashed. Realizing that 3 months of his life had been lost, Vikrant's head nearly exploded and he went home for a mental break. With a screwdriver in hand, Onkar dissembled the entire computer and reassembled the whole platform. Luckily, the code was saved.
April 2008 - Growing in New York
Back in New York, Deb and Mark joined Justmeans to focus on client development, strategy and expanding the US presence. Deb was yanked out of an executive search position after being recommended by a VC. Mark joined following a successful business development career in a wide variety of companies. Their persistence in attracting clientele landed a number of Fortune 500, social enterprise, and small NGO clients.
October 2008 - Slower is Faster
Having gone through the painful lesson of database scalability in 2007, 2008's lesson was interaction design. While the platform continued to grow, it was quickly apparent that the story and design layer of Justmeans needed significant tweaking. It also became apparent that managing design in one country vs. programming in another was not scalable in a startup. After successfully launching the Justmeans Pune office, it was decided to go down another seldom trod path, moving usability and design to Pune as well.
March 2009 - Silicon Valley in Pune, India
The last step in creating a meaningful lasting partnership was to move away from the current business model of dictating strategy in the West have it implemented in India. For Justmeans to become a world class platform, strategy would have to emanate from every employee. Stock options, weekly training sessions, and a focus on building world class code all became part of the Justmeans reality in Pune, India.
May 2009 - Justmeans Newsfeed Launches
In May 2009, Justmeans relaunched its first major product, a personalized newsfeed to follow and interact with the companies that are doing business better. More and more companies began joining Justmeans. The Kevin/Vikrant programming and product design team, having learned their lessons over the last eighteen months, was now unstoppable.
August 2009 - Justmeans Campaigns and Distribution Center Launches
Following a hectic summer and over 12000 programming hours, Justmeans launches version 1.0 of its Campaigns Module and its Distribution center. Kevin moves to Pune full time to continue training and product design. The 100,000th user joins Justmeans in September 2009.
October 2009 - Justmeans - Social Media for Sustainability
Justmeans brings together leading Silicon Valley executives, sustainability thought-leaders, and social entrepreneurs for a day-long conference entitled Social Media for Sustainability in San Francisco.
December 2009 - Moving on Up
25 Fortune 500s and over 150 companies are using Justmeans to get the word out on their better business practices by the end of 2009.
February 2010 - The Beat Goes On
Justmeans version 2.0 launches with solid design, improved usability, and great simple tools that help companies engage people.
